Compare car insurance Northern Ireland

Can I drive my car in England if I have Northern Ireland car insurance?

Yes, while Northern Ireland has a devolved government it’s still part of the UK, so if you take your car on the ferry from Northern Ireland to England, Wales or Scotland you will automatically be insured to drive there.

If you’re moving from Northern Ireland to another part of the UK, though, you will need to inform your insurance provider of your new address, and your car insurance premium may have to be revised (either upward or downward) because your new location will have a different risk profile.

Can I drive in the Republic of Ireland with NI car insurance?

Most insurers will include EU cover with a 30-day limit as standard in their car insurance policies. You should contact your insurer directly on how driving in the Republic of Ireland may impact your coverage. You may only be offered third-party cover when driving in the Republic of Ireland regardless of whether you have a comprehensive policy. If you plan to frequently travel outside Northern Ireland, it may be worth considering getting additional European cover as a policy add-on.

Should I use a Northern Ireland car insurance company?

There are a number of local insurance companies and local brokers that only serve drivers in Northern Ireland, such as Hughes Insurance, Abbey Insurance, Apricot Insurance and Allianz NI.

It’s definitely worth getting quotes from each of those local providers when you’re ready to take out a car insurance policy, but it would also be a wise move to compare their quotes with the prices offered by UK-wide insurance providers.

By using CompareNI.com’s unbiased insurance comparison website you’ll only have to complete one short form in order to compare quotes from over 80 different car insurance NI providers, including local insurance companies.

That way you’ll be more likely to find a suitable car insurance NI policy at the cheapest possible price.

Which car insurance companies serve Northern Ireland?

The list of insurance companies serving Northern Ireland is growing all the time, so it’s difficult to provide an up-to-date list of the providers you should get quotes from when you’re ready to take out car insurance in NI.

However, it would be incredibly time-consuming to get a separate quote from each insurance provider individually anyway. A faster, easier option is to use our online price comparison platform – that way you’ll only have to complete one short form in order to compare Northern Ireland car insurance quotes from over 80 different insurance companies.

What level of cover is available to motorists in Northern Ireland?

Drivers in Northern Ireland have three levels of cover to choose from:

• Third party insurance:
  This is the minimum level of car insurance Northern Ireland drivers must have under UK law, and is mostly designed to protect other motorists when you take to the roads. As such this type of insurance will usually cover damage to a third party’s vehicle (hence the name), or personal injuries sustained by the occupants of the other car, but won’t cover the cost of damage to your own car.
• Third party, fire and theft:
  As the name suggests, this type of insurance provides the same level of cover as third party car insurance in NI, but should also pay out if your own vehicle is stolen or damaged in a fire.
• Fully comprehensive:
  Again, the name says it all – this is the most comprehensive level of car insurance NI drivers can take out, and as such it is sometimes the most expensive too. In addition to the cover provided by third party and third party, fire and theft, fully-comp insurance will usually cover the cost of repairing damage to your own vehicle – or replacing the car with one of an equal value if yours has to be written off.

How can I find cheap car insurance NI if I’m a young driver?

A driver’s age can have a significant effect on how much they pay for car insurance, because road accident data suggests younger drivers are significantly more likely to be involved in an accident than older motorists.

Of course, just because your Northern Ireland insurance quote isn’t likely to be cheap doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to reduce your premium. If you’re a student driver or a provisional licence holder, you can look to our guide on the cheapest cars to insure for young drivers. Or you might also be able to find cheaper NI car insurance if you:

• Opt for a car with a smaller engine:
  Cars with smaller engines usually fall into a lower insurance group, which means they’re often cheaper to insure.
• Park the car in a garage or on a private driveway:
  Cars that are usually parked on the side of the road have a higher risk of being damaged by passing vehicles or targeted by thieves, so if you’re able to park off the road you should benefit from cheaper insurance quotes.
• Opt for telematics insurance:
  Telematics car insurance, or black box insurance as it’s also known, is often cheaper than a regular insurance policy because the black box tracks your driving habits and provides your insurer with real-time telemetry data. The company can then use this data to adjust your premium on a daily basis, which offsets some of their risk.
• Compare quotes for third-party car insurance:
  As with the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland car insurance policies offer three different levels of coverage, with third party insurance providing drivers with the least protection. For that reason it can sometimes prove cheaper than third party, fire and theft or fully-comp insurance, although it is worth comparing quotes for all three levels and going with the policy that offers the best coverage at the cheapest price.
• Insure multiple cars under a single policy:
  If your household has a number of vehicles you could take out a multi-car insurance policy, which should be cheaper than insuring each car separately.

Beyond those steps, it’s particularly important to compare car insurance quotes from a wide range of providers when you’re a younger driver, because prices can vary much more dramatically when premiums are higher.

Which town in Northern Ireland has the cheapest car insurance?

Whether you’re based in Belfast or Bangor, Coleraine or Carrickfergus, Londonderry, Lisburn or Larne, your insurance provider will take a range of location-specific data points into consideration when calculating your premiums, including your area’s crime rate, accident rate and congestion levels.

However, providers tend to take a fairly granular approach to this data, so while broader data for the whole town or city does play a role it’s likely to be the crime and accident rates for your specific neighbourhood and street that have the biggest impact.

*51% of consumers could save £523.47 on their Car Insurance. The saving was calculated by comparing the cheapest price found with the average of the next six cheapest prices quoted by insurance providers on Seopa Ltd’s insurance comparison website. This is based on representative cost savings from August 2024 data. The savings you could achieve are dependent on your individual circumstances and how you selected your current insurance supplier.

Ian Wilson, Managing Director and trusted car insurance expert at CompareNI.com, has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry.

Earning an MEng degree from Queen’s University Belfast, Ian has pioneered the launch of a wide range of innovative financial comparison solutions that have helped both consumers and small businesses in Northern Ireland to save money on everything from car insurance to car finance – with his expert financial commentary positioning him as an authoritative figure on the Northern Ireland insurance industry, regularly quoted by national and local press.